What should be done with the tons of old clothes in France, who no longer find buyers on the second-hand market in Africa: more in the inside? In view of the crisis at the textile collection, the eco-organization responsible for the industry revises its strategy, as announced to the AFP news agency on Tuesday.
“We can no longer continue,” emphasized Sandra Baldini, head of the Refashion’s consumption department, the eco-organization, which the government commissioned to accompany the fashion industry on the way to a more circulatory-oriented economy, to AFP.
Wholesaler: Better buy in Asia on the inside
Since last summer, France, which is a model student in the recycling of textile waste at the European and global level, has been experiencing a threat to his old textile industry from Asia. The first visible consequence of this is the closure of numerous collection points for clothing and shoes.
Every year around 270,000 tons of textile waste are collected in France and “60 percent of the sorted products” are resold as second-handed goods-90 percent of them abroad, according to the Refashion report 2023. But now “African buyers turn in to buy in China Secondhand or even new”, which is much cheaper for these wholesalers than to afford European secondhand, Sandra Baldini had warned in December. The result is that part of the second-hand clothing from France in Africa no longer finds decreasing.
New initiatives
In view of this fact, the eco-organization starts the “Re_Actt” project, which should enable collecting and sorting companies such as Le Relais or Emmaüs, but also brands to keep old clothes of good quality for resale and to trust the rest of the Ref term. But the listing of all actors of the value chain in collectors, sorters, recyclers, et cetera should also become “mandatory”.
This draft can be discussed within the framework of the consultations sought by the minister for the ecological transition Agnès Pannier-Runacher. On April 3, the minister announced the initiation of a consultation on the future of the model of the exploitation chain of extended manufacturer’s responsibility for clothing, shoes and household washing.
This article was used with digital tools translated.
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